Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Yes it was a lovely hot sunny summer's day the end of summer is turning glorious, not for the first year. Having not made many things recently that are beach or summer holiday related so playing with Brushos and an MDF door hanger came up with this.

Started painting the hanger with white gesso and sprinkled colour crystals on top. Colour moved around with water brushes. Colours are great but I did not want this terrific sun image to be in black. Tissue paper with the word Post Card provided the solution. The sun is a stamp found on Ebay a which I was pleased to discover is a PXS stamp, I think my friend Carol also has this stamp or one very similar that I admired/coveted for years. The Seagull stamped at the top of the hanger is also an eBay PSX find. The paddling couple are freebies from a cover set.

Saturday, 27 August 2016

The last English Bank Holiday until Christmas, the end of August, the end of summer. A long week-end looked forward to by oh so many workers all of whom are hoping for sunshine, maybe a day out with family and friends or a back garden BBQ. Hopes and plans they have every year, this year like so many before they look to be disappointed it is raining. No gentle shower no light sprinkling of rain but a full on down pour complete with lightening and thunder. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

So I made a card. Well was going to do that anyway! Started with a couple of challenges in mind, both requiring Black, White and one other, one also is a CAS challenge. With some sort of structure in place hunted out this stamp that I don't think I've inked before. What can I say about the image with it's haughty androgynous appearance staring into the distance at what I wonder, a rain storm maybe. Such a being must be bathed in brilliant light don't you think.

Thursday, 25 August 2016

These negative image stamps from Imagination crafts are great but I've still to get the solid colour area really solid.

For this Tag I used 6 DI inks with some torn paper and my trusty Inklicious Dusters, knowing that the multi coloured base would be stamped with the kittens kinda faux technicolour coat technique. Reasonably pleased with the result a 7th colour applied to the unstamped edges. The butterfly is an old favourite stamp, Hobby Art I think. Stamped in Teal Memento coloured with ProMarkers in pretty pastels, I used some of the torn paper used as a mask for this. Well those kittens are watching something. The ribbon is also multi coloured and matches the rest of the tag, it is secured at the back with a cocktail stick.

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

The sort of day that inspires summer like crafting. So its a card, with butterflies and flowers.

Quick whinge I cannot get on with the butterfly die. I've tried using different weights of paper and card. Wax paper, another piece of paper or card behind the paper/card I want to cut. Different positions on the platform and different die cutting machines. It is mostly the middle 2 cutouts but as you can see on the kraft card used here more or less all of them fail to cut cleaning. I resort to snipping them out with scissors, not quite how a die is expected to work.

Anyway today I cut 3 butterflies out. The Kraft one was cut with wax paper and that was used as well. Finally a little left over blue vellum provided the 3rd die cut. The flower is part of an old freebie set from a long forgotten magazine. Stamped in green memento and coloured with a mix of ProMarkers and Chameleon Pens

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Seriously. I've had some work done in the Shower room and WC, a new seat will just round the project off. Now the cover usually is left plain but why it is not as if it can be used for anything being lifted as it is several times a day. So faced with a large plain white flat surface what choice did i have? The halloween theme? umm that is a bit of a surprise but on the window shelf of the WC there sits proudly a sparkly skull, well WC's are scary places and you never know what you will find in them! Added to which I have just acquired some new halloween stamps by Stampendous The skeleton lady and the skull with crow.

So Marked of an area 4cm from the rim to allow the lid to rest when raised. The rest of the lid rubbed down with sand paper. Next tubes of artist acrylic paint, purple for the top, orange for the middle and a mix of black and white for the foreground. Wet paint pushed and pulled around to mingle and some red added. Acrylics dry quickly enabling the 2 Stampendous stamps to be added with Stayzon. The centre panel of hessian, a bit of natural fabric shower lily and the plaster skull were added with Powertex that wonderful fabric harder. The skull filled in with Titanium Buff.

This morning I decided to add the TH bird stamped in black stayzon and then like all the stamped images touched up with black ProMarker. Some dry brushing added green and purple to the stiff fabric, the same colours used on both the stamped skull and the skeletons dress, finally a little imagination craft silver shimmer touched in places. Finally a layer of Viva crackle paste to seal and give an extra effect to the overall project, this lifted some of the paint at the edge where the lid starts to curve giving an added layer of distressing.

Monday, 22 August 2016

adj having a strange allure or beauty; originating in a foreign country > n non-native plant.

Generally speaking here in modern Briton finding something exotic is a bit of a challenge, we can pretty much access anything we want. So this week's Less is More challenge theme got me thinking, what do we mean by the word exotic hence the dictionary definition. What does the word mean to me? "Something strange/unusual and beautiful in it's strangeness."

A Viking longboat, you don't see many of those around here these days. Once fairly common place especially on the North Sea Coast where I now live, they have now been replaced by Car Ferries! In my imagination they must have been strangely beautiful well made sea worthy ships with mysterious carving.

Joanna Sheen stamp used on a 6" x 4" postcard blank and coloured with ProMarkers. As the markers have not bleed through it is perfectly possible to send this as a post card to someone perhaps needing a bit of support and encouragement.

Sunday, 21 August 2016

and a torn book page, that took some doing. Pinks! and Blues the scheme got stuck in my head must have been waiting for this tag.

The starting inspiration was Go Tag Thursday, I really enjoy these challenges they offer something just a little different every week. Could not make the last theme work but this one Book Print for me hunting out a book from a charity shop for just this purpose, and it is still hard. Having torn the page the real work started, what on earth to do with it. Got as far as trimming the page to fit the tag and hand dry embossed the bottom corner vellum. Because vellum is transparent there was no need to dig out the light box but took a while to find my embossing tools. Then I went to bed.

Must have dreamt pink and blue, just not my colour scheme well it wasn't anyway. First time out of the package for the fabulous Stampers Anonymous floral stamps which are beautifully drawn. Stamped in black memento then coloured with Chameleon Pens and playing with their built in blender ink. Thought the butterfly was going to be stamped and fussy cut but it was so good to work with the vellum and a metal stencil that it became the better option. A little lillic distressing around the edges to finish off.

Saturday, 20 August 2016

Well this time we have reached a point we hoped we never would. For a year Christi, Jane and I have offered fortnightly challenges that might at times have bucked the general trend, but we have had very little interest. The entries we have had were of a fabulous standard so picking our winners and top 2 or 3 has been hard, but the number of entries has been disappointing. So we have decided to take a month of, re-group and come back in October with a few changes we hope will inspire and encourage more peeps to join in the fun.

So Jane's challenge for this fortnight at Twofers is the last for now. Jane's prompt is Stamped Sentiment as the main feature. As always our very kind and generous sponsor is going to give the winner a voucher worth $15 to spend at Alleystamp her online store. Thank you Janine for your support and continued commitment to us. Alleystamp will continue to sponsor us when we return having declined my offer to stop, just how generous is that?

So onto my project for this theme, Sentiment main element on playing cards!

I did it! 4 of hearts with a very cute elephant and a very apt sentiment in the circumstances. 9 of Diamonds and a sentiment to live by. Guess what. These are the last 2 cards in my pack.

There they are all 52 playing cards. All one layer and where coloured felt pens were used so no bleed through giving them away on their plain white backs. No jokers, run out of challenges and I'll be doing something different when we come back.

Over to you now remember to stamp the sentiment that is the focal point of your project. Jane's winner will received a $15 voucher for Alleystamp. Join us at Twofers for a chance to make that voucher yours.

Friday, 19 August 2016

A 6" square Tando grey board is the base, and my newest stencil from Dreamweaver was the starting point. Embossed the Jellyfish with gold Dreamweaver paste. Once it was dry I went over it with DecoArt gesso and acrylic paints. Painting complete 3 shells from Stamping' up placed on the bottom, coloured these with ProMarkers and then masked them. Yellow distress paint give the sand bed for the shells with touches of Imagination Crafts Inca Gold seems to make it more watery. Fish and bubbles added with a Craftylicious set stamped in black, silver and gold. (Should be Bronze, Silver & Gold really but didn't think of that at the time). The fish outline filled with Sakura Soufflé pen. Finally scraped some of the paint off the jelly fish so that glints of the gold paste show through.

Wednesday, 17 August 2016

My legs do not like me very much today, just been into town for some shopping, walking was painful. It is all yesterday's fault.

I walked more than 10k yesterday, a lot of it around train and tube stations! Got the train down to London and the tube to Embankment. It was a lovely day and the walk on the South Bank to the Tate Modern was a pleasure. The London City sky line is fascination with a mix of modern back through time to St Pauls and all those cranes. The cranes are fantastic making interesting and inspiring shapes in the skyline breaking up the boxiness of the buildings. Add to the the colour and bustle of the walk with all sorts of people out enjoying a beautiful day their own way.

Eventually arrived at the Tate Modern. I love visiting here you cannot fail to find something to inspire you, something to dwell on and wonder about and often something that disappoints. Yesterday I was on a mission, the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe intrigues me so having the chance to actually see her work not just pictures of her pictures was one not to be missed.

The charcoal on paper above is from an early period in her career when she had gone back to basics working just in black and white. The curves where an image she played with in a lot of these pieces the play of light and shade strong lines and soft lines with that beautiful curve really appealed to me. Later in the exhibition it is echoed in a charcoal piece Rams Horns from a later time of her life when she was working with skulls and bones.

The picture below was the source of amusement to me as people would go and peer at it close up and then from the side to see if the creases were real or really just paint on canvas.

This lovely person caught me chuckling at her when she stopped to check it, once I explained and she also watched people stopping and examining it she agreed to pose. It really is just oil on canvas a real masterclass in light shade. In many respects this is my favourite piece in the collection shown.

So the price today of barely being able to walk to the kitchen is worth it. Some friends have said they want to go and I hope they get there, the exhibition runs until the end of October. Tate modern is worth a visit at anytime.

I am now overflowing, again, with inspiration. Just go to let it settle and decide what to do but as ever watch this space.

Sunday, 14 August 2016

Before getting into this card I would like to thank the team at Less is More for selecting me as their July Winner. I do not think they have ever showcased any of my entries over the years so this was completely out of the blue, in fact I don't think I would ever have known if people had not told me! So thank you I am honoured and thrilled.

Well with a compliment like this joining this weeks challenge was a must do. This is one layer week, my favourite kind of CAS, with Something French as the theme. Naturally the Eiffel towers first to mind, then these dancing girls an old wood mounted stamp that cost me £4.50 back when would be more than double that now. TH Moulin Rouge stamp would have been great to have behind the girls but could not get an arrangement that worked so back to the tower.

Coloured the main image with Chameleon Pens which allowed me to play with light and shade on the stage and background. Decided to keep the girls costumes flat colour just reducing the intensity down the line. Just in case anyone is unsure I've labelled it Paris it looks a little slanted in the picture that is a trick of the angle of the card, sorry about that. Not 100% happy added a double pink frame which seems to pull it together.

I might be back later in the week with a glass of Vin Rouge but for now this is my Less is More entry.

This is one of those MDF kits you can buy. It is designed as a stationery holder but for my purposes it will be a remote holder. With all the various home entertainment we have putting the controls in one place is useful. I've popped a couple of calculators in there as well and a camera, the usual sorts of things might have in the living room and need to store somewhere.

Firstly the various parts were given a base of white gesso and then everything assembled. Some boards were covered with a favourite piece of 12" x 12" paper.

It then sat on a shelf for a couple of weeks while other projects took over the craft table. I was not quite sure how to proceed until I stopped trying to be clever. I enjoy stamping, flowers and butterflies are favourite subjects. Embossing and texture are comment elements in my projects, stencils are a great way of introducing both of these.

With these great tried and proven mediums and techniques in mind progress has been made. Step 1 using a blending pad colour all the outside pained surfaces with peeled paint DI. The papered surfaces were given a touch of the same treatment. Next a hunt through my PSX and PSX style floral stamps 4 were chosen. The sides were stamped and heat embossed first, using fine gold ep gave a wonderful effect. The stamped and embossed image is clear but the powder had caught in the brush marks giving a haze around the image.

The the back, stamped and embossed with moon glow eps. A mask was then laid over the back and stippled with good shimmer acrylic paint. Then the flowers were coloured with felt pens, I didn't want to try solvent pens suspecting they would not react all that well with the DI. Turning back to the front two favourite stamps a butterfly and dragonfly were stamped over the paper covered boards. A TH mini mask placed over the very front and stippled with distress paint, the result is green blotches not the pretty design, solved with a celtic patten stencil and some green glitter embossing paste. The last experiment, the application of more of the same type of embossing paste, this time orange, over the narrow widths with my finger. Its lumpy bumpy and a bit messy, perfect.

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

This is my first make with the Tando prize, their arches were the first of their products that I ever used and it has been ages, years since I last used this format. It was so refreshing to do so again.

The colour scheme is taken from the Tando monthly FB challenge, it is a closed group which puts of spammers but it is a very friendly group all crafters welcome.

Colours added a layer of Viva crackle paste scrapped over in varying thickness. This adds texture and plays a little with the colours making them less flat and more interesting.

To decorate the arch a quick look through my pile of left overs the wisteria stamped on acetate just fits nicely into the frame. The abandoned butterfly rests comfortably on top. The butterfly was on white paper which has now been dusted with Scattered Straw and Rusty Hinge.

Wonder where there is no path is a motto I craft by. Once completed I realised that there are a couple of other challenges this qualifies for.Try it on Tuesday - Use leftovers and scrapsPixie's Crafty Workshop - Anything goes must use snippets. Got to add the prize this week is gorgeous.

Tuesday, 9 August 2016

A time to let fresh air into the house with windows open. Until it got so cold that my heating kicked in! Oh well at least the new system works.

This is another of my mini art pieces. This time inspired by PaperArtsy and their exploration of patterns. The scope of pattern is mind boggling and hard to express because they are so much a part of our world/life in fact our lives follow a pattern. So I played with the idea of setting two patterns against each other. Did you know the Victorians did something like that they would use richly patterned wall papers over which they hung pictures and paintings. We would find it very odd now because we are used to plainer walls showing off the pictures.

First I stamped the Clarity horses head and then masked it. Next an Artistic Stamper image with a section masked to give the plain area that was later torn as if allowing the horses head to poke through. The background does not cover the full width of the base card this is intended to re-inforce the 3d effect.

The colour scheme of Black, White and Green came from Rubber Dance stamp. Their theme is Black, White + 1 optional theme Love and Romance. Think they might say the theme is lacking here, but not to a horse they love their grass. Think my alternative title for this piece would be "The Grass is always Greener". Green is also my favourite colour.

Monday, 8 August 2016

Hi I received a fantastic parcel today of Tando goodies the prize for a recent Tando/Stampendous blog hop. Before showing you just what an amazing prize it is I would like to show you in full the last Tando project I completed. I have shared a couple of pages before but now here is the full book.

Not wanting to keep you here all day will not go into detail about each 'page'. ArtDeco acrylic paint, gesso and tint used on each page. Over the top stamping, masking/stencilling, gilding flakes, freehand scribbling and other mark making implements were all employed. Things did not always go according to plan, what plan? but anything not liked was simply painted over. Several days and a lot of mess later I have this little sample book. If you spotted the cat face it is an old (1999) PSX stamp, if anyone has one like it that they do not use I would be interested in it please let me know.

There are some really good fun mixed media/no cards/alteration challenges especially on the Monthly circuit. My little book is being entered into a few.

Sunday, 7 August 2016

OK so I do not join in every week but more often than not. This week is a colour challenge, Blue and Brown a very elegant and stylish combination so this week it's a no brainer.

Wanting this to be CAS but elegant opted for a little gate fold card. The tailors dummy is kraft card the flowers have been in my stash forever although the blue one was white until it was sprayed. The sentiment is also stamped in blue just a gentle happy thought.

Saturday, 6 August 2016

Well here in the UK it was for about a week hehe. Christi was being very optimistic when she chose this theme perhaps she knew that she would be taking a little break. More news about that at our next challenge in two weeks.

With a theme of "The heat is on" had to use the fab flame stencil with three different colours of felt pens. Flames are yellow, red, and orange. Both the heart stamps are as usual The English Stamp Company.

The Seagulls/Sea image is one of my favourite stamps and there just happen to be 9 birds in it. Another simple stamping and colouring project, out of the whole pack (just 2 more to share with you) these might be my favourites they are certainly up there.

The challenge is Twofers, and Jane is acting host this time. We are a rubber/polymer stamping challenge and would love to see your Heat inspired projects. Our sponsor is Alleystamp who give the winner $15 to spend in their online store.

QKR Stampede - Things with Wings (Seagulls)Wicked Wednesday ATC - Things you might find at the Beach (Lots of people think my 2.5" 3.5" playing cards are ATCs & you will find Seagulls at the beach trust me on that I've always lived near the sea!)Crafty Creations - On the Beach

Just Add Ink - Just add F (Fire or Flames)Vintage Journey - Stencil it (This is very much Mixed Media with felt pen, Sakura Pen and Rubber Stamping)

Friday, 5 August 2016

Still enjoying something of a clean crafting phase, well yesterday and today! Casting around for inspiration came upon a colour challenge, just Lime and Aqua with Naturals. I love cool colours, green is my favourite and blue a close second combined they are delicious. This older Stampendous wood mounted image is so pretty these cool colours seemed just right.

Stamped in London Grey Memento. Coloured with ProMarkers, there are 2 shades of Lime in my collection. Love using solvent pens be it these or Chameleons they give great coverage and you can build light and shade so easily. Clarity Stamps provided the corner stamps which fit with the graceful lady very nicely. Finally a dusting of Lime Green and Aqua blue around the edges.

Thursday, 4 August 2016

I had one of those lovely moments yesterday when you see that your creation been showcased by the site you entered it onto. A call out like this is so special we all work hard on our projects, on the other hand Challenge teams work hard which deserves it's own showcase. Go Tag Thursday still a very new challenge have showcased my entry twice which means a great deal, thank you to all the team at Go Tag Thursday.

This week their challenge is Children, the first thing that came to my mind was this fabulous Crafty Individuals stamp. The sentiment is from the same set it does not matter what stage of childhood you are at, 6 or 106, friendship will always be one of life's essentials.

Wednesday, 3 August 2016

This time I used just the Turquoise and White Tint to paint the art board. Well after I had used Gesso as a base. The skull in the background is a Tando/Andy Skinner mask worked with felt pens and some tint for empathies. Over this a Crafty Individuals mask of birds was added using the white gesso through the mask which gives a raised stippled effect. Then the DecoArt black paint added with the shape end of a small scoop, this proved to be a really nice way of following the wing sweeps. There is something about bird wings and the shapes they describe in the sky that fascinates me. Lastly the Poppy was added twice in Satin Red Versafine. Somehow the skull and white birds put me in mind of remembrance so the poppy seemed apt.

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

A little flat this week short on inspiration so yesterday playing around with watercolour paper, water, and colour seemed like the thing to do. Ended up with some very interesting backgrounds and a big blue stain. Cutting the stain off the remainder left a gorgeous piece.

The colours used with water are Gelatos scribbled onto the damp paper and then spread further with more water and a brush. More water and Ken Oliver colour bursts in the same colour families the result is summer on paper.

From past experience I knew that the inks could not be allowed to get wet, anything fluid would destabilise them and could spoil what was there. So stamping and collaging over the top was the limit of any interaction with the background. All I've done then is stamped in black Archival ink and used a couple of Craftwork Cards die cuts. The dress form is kraft card coloured with different colours of DI.

As everyone knows water colour paper when wet and left to dry will buckle unless it is stretched before you start. So this buckled, the solution proved to be turning the off cut over and using it as a backing. Once it was attached it occurred to me to use tissue tape as a frame. The resulting panel is 8" x 11" now I need to find a way to frame it.